Sir George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet

Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan, 4th Baronet (5 November 1906 – 9 February 1996) was a British educational pioneer who was prominent in the New Age movement. In 1942, after listening to a lecture by Dr Walter Stein, a student of Rudolf Steiner, he transitioned from being agnostic to a new age spiritual thinker, and even studied anthroposophy in the coming years. He first became a history teacher at Gordonstoun School, pioneering radical education methods. After World War II, in 1948, he became the Warden at Attingham Park, a pioneering adult education college in Shropshire, from which he retired in 1971 to found the Wrekin Trust, an educational charity. He was subsequently associated with the Soil Association, the Findhorn Foundation, the Teilhard de Chardin Society and the Essene Network. In the last 15 years of his life he was the focus of many lecture tours and meetings. He also wrote numerous books, including A Vision of the Aquarian Age, Operation Redemption (1981), Summons to a High Crusade (1985) and finally Exploration into God (1991). He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1982 for "educating the adult spirit to a new non-materialistic vision of human nature."

Early life and education Trevelyan was the eldest child of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet, and Mary Katherine Bell, a younger half-sister of Gertrude Bell and the daughter of Sir Thomas Bell, 2nd Baronet. He was proud of this ancestry, which he imagined linked him to Sir Trevillian, one of King Arthur's knights, who swam ashore on horseback when Lyonesse finally sank. Legend says that Sir Trevillian emerged with a mighty effort from the waves and landed safely on the dry land of Cornwall. He grew up in his family's Northumberland home, Wallington Hall, which his father gave to the National Trust, effectively disinheriting Trevelyan. He studied at Sidcot School, a Quaker school in Somerset.

In 1925, he went to read history at Trinity College, Cambridge, in accordance with family tradition. During his lifetime he explored beliefs in angels, the calming effects of crystals and the power of ley lines, alongside organic farming and communal living.

In 1947, after his wartime military service, Trevelyan was appointed Warden and Principal of Attingham Park, an adult training college in Shropshire, where he carried out his pioneering work in the teaching of spiritual knowledge as adult education. The courses ranged from chamber music and drama onto esoteric subjects such as 'Finding the Inner Teacher' and 'Holistic Vision'. The latter attracting large numbers of participants, many of them from other countries as well as Britain. The college was jointly sponsored by the local authority, Shropshire County Council, and the University of Birmingham, both of whom looked askance at Trevelyan's attraction towards the mystical; and so it took immense moral courage, for instance, for him to present a course on 'Death and Becoming', a subject that was in those days virtually taboo.

He was involved in the establishment of the Findhorn Foundation, the Gatekeeper Trust, and through his friendship with Wellesley Tudor Pole, the Chalice Well and the Lamplighter Movement.

In 1971, he set up the Wrekin Trust to promote spiritual education and knowledge

In 1982, he was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award.

Personal life He married Helen Lindsay-Smith (died 1994) in 1940, and the couple had an adopted daughter.